Change Your Homeschool

It's the end of the school year. Are you celebrating?

Or, maybe, just maybe...you feel a bit different...

Do you feel like you have run a marathon? Are you exhausted? Have the tears flowed easily?

Have you had a less than stellar year?

Maybe you have made one too many mistakes and feel like giving up?




I understand.
Completely.


We just finished a year which I may or may not have compared our final months to crossing a finish line in a race car with four blown out tires.

Despite this dramatic {or traumatic} ending, I can whole heartedly say:
Don't give up on homeschooling!

Instead, learn from your school year. And for the future...
Change it. Simplify it. Make it different.

15 ideas to Change your Homeschool for the better
or to ponder as you relax in the shade this summer...

1. Consider teaching less subjects by combining some
2. Do less - more isn't always better and perhaps some activities could be removed
3. Try multi-age teaching - (Subjects like history, science, art, music could be taught this way.)
4. Start counting life learning lessons towards school time
5. Try year round schooling - more time and less stress to fit it all in
6. Create a shorter daily schedule
7. Establish must dos and would be nice
8. Don't do everything next year
9. Pursue PE as a family - hiking, biking, boating, swimming, etc. can all be done as a family
10. Change the physical surroundings - switch homeschool rooms, rearrange the furniture, change the wall décor to a more welcoming appearance 
11. Organize the books and supplies differently - make the homeschool area work for you
12. Sign up for on line courses for those harder to teach classes
13. Encourage independent learning
14. Join a co-op or one day a week school
15. Study an extra subject during the summer break (health, art, critical thinking, writing, logic, music, or poetry)

Related:
Order in the House, Please! {Ideas for a more peaceful homeschool house}
An Extra Dose of Encouragement {books to encourage}
Turning Down the Noise {when too many opinions overwhelm}
Finding Your Homeschool Fit
Six Things I Would Tell a New Homeschooler

An Update on Changes

Truly this has been one of our busiest homeschooling years, but maybe not in the way you think. Last summer, I determined we would spend more time at home during our daily school hours, and for the most part, we have! Instead of carting from one thing to the next during school hours, we have stayed put. With the exception of piano lessons and science classes, we have been home during the day. Our evenings are another story, but the time home during the day has been a blessing.

Some of the long term benefits have been an increased time to delve into a subject or lesson.

We have had time to try those great ideas I have pinned.

We have read even more books than usual.

Our discussions have not been rushed.

We have leisurely enjoyed lessons without having to rush to another class or event.

However, probably the most encouraging for me is the children's creativity has flourished. They have taken up drawing, creative writing, collecting, and more. on. their. own. These activities were done for the enjoyment of it, not as a requirement for a class.

Currently, we are studying Ancient Rome. Since our studies of Ancient Greece were in depth and full of hands on projects, I was planning to lighten the activities for Ancient Rome.

My daughters, however, are full of other ideas. Just yesterday, we were reading a bit about the Roman culture and art. My daughters remembered a project we had done last time we studied Ancient Rome, and asked to do it again. I gave them the go ahead to proceed on their own, with the request that they include their younger brother, who had missed out on the project years ago. They agreed and spent a good portion of the afternoon making paper mosaics.

Perhaps our school year has not looked like everything I first envisioned. {We certainly have not been on many nature walks this year.} Yet, looking back over the days and forward to the remaining weeks, I think it may have just turned out better than I had hoped.

Getting Ready for High School

Sometimes we are told to begin with the end in mind. This is all fine and dandy except when you are taking something, like homeschooling, year by year. Without a true end in sight, how do you know what to aim for?

For years, we homeschooled year by year. Honestly, we still do. However, I have taken to planning with one end in sight. The finish line of eighth grade. Oh, sure, we're still going to be homeschooling in high school, but there are certain abilities and academic marks we want each of my children to achieve before they begin high school. There is also a particular set of knowledge we want my children familiar with prior to high school. All of these are markers, or goals, we want each child to meet prior to completing eighth grade.

Each year, we determine how far a child has progressed, what areas need reviewed or introduced. Always moving toward the finish line at the child's learning pace.

With one child in eighth grade, we are quickly approaching that finish line. Over the next several months, we'll be assessing him for the final time.

Will we have failed or succeeded in meeting our academic plan? This remains to be determined.




*Photographs from the archives.